You think the brethren can't agree with what the definition of what BBQ is?

[Fwismoker]

Well the definition folks can't agree either. It's very interesting to see how different definition entities view what BBQ is. There does seem to bee a common thread though and that is "Meat cooked over coals or fire" So when folks on here argue about what BBQ is don't feel too bad! :biggrin1:

Also from the bottom link...this should unite us all.

Just what the heck is barbecue, anyway?

There are many legitimate definitions, verb, noun, and adjective. There is even a legal definition. One definition just will not do the job. When you cut through the haze, ultimately, it is smoke that differentiates barbecue from other types of cooking. The fact is that there are many forms of barbecue around the world and it is the presence of smoke that unifies them all.


Reference.

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/barbecue
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/barbecue
http://www.thefreedictionary.com/barbecue
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/barbecue

Amazing ribs took it to the ridiculous but it's an interesting read. Here's a blurb talking about rotisserie.


Because the early use of the word often was for large animals on a spit, for many experts barbecue meant rotisseried meats. In her 10 million selling landmark 1947 cookbook, Let's Cook it Right, Adelle Davis said "When meat is barbecued over an open fire or charcoal flames, a revolving spit allows it to broil on one surface while the other surface cools; the flames some distance away cause the meat to be surrounded by dry heat, as if it were in a slow oven, thus barbecuing is a combination of broiling and roasting."

http://amazingribs.com/BBQ_articles/barbecue_defined.html

 

[Fwismoker]

I like this part in the amazing ribs article. It encompasses much of this place including the first BBQ Snob.

The trend to narrow the definition may well have begun in 1942 when George W. Martin wrote his book Come and Get It, The Compleat Outdoor Chef. He says "We don't refer to the misnamed 'Bar-B-Q' hot dog stands that disgrace the scenic beauties of our highways, nor do we concede that because a piece of meat is cooked more or less out of doors it deserves to carry the label of this time-honored cooking method." Our first barbecue snob.
In the past 10 to 20 years, these fundamentalists have fomented a wrongheaded revisionist movement whose goal is to redefine barbecue to something like this: "Barbecue is large hunks of meat roasted low and slow with indirect heat and wood smoke." Everything else, they say, "is just grilling". Grilling they maintain is hot and fast.
You have probably read this definition in many newspaper articles, magazines, books, and websites. A lot of people have swallowed this specious logic. In a July 2010, one of our best food writers, Josh Ozersky of TIME Magazine wrote an article titled "Five Things Americans Need to Know About Barbecue". Most of the reader comments say something like this "this article is about grilling not bbq". What they mean is "that's not Southern barbecue, it's grilling".
Ardie Davis, who was around at the time, says that the "hogma" took hold in Kansas City in the 1980s when he and others founded the Kansas City Barbeque Society. He has since recanted: "Grilling hot and fast or smoking slow and low: both are barbecue... [yet] the dogma persists. A few old-timers and newbies defend it with vigor, as if it is proof that they know barbecue and you don't."
I say: Cut out the snobbery and get your facts straight! Barbecue around the world is far too complex and wonderful to be oversimplified like that. It was not invented in the US, and it is not exclusive to the US. Barbecue is a big word that encompasses grilling and many cooking methods as shown in the illustration above. What you are describing is more properly called "Southern Barbecue" or Low & Slow Smoke Roasting".

 

[Bob C Cue]

Hwga.

 

[Fwismoker]

Don't tell me I need to start rooting for Alabama football!


Flaw in the revisionist logic. Closer to here and now, the revisionists forget that many of the finest barbecue shrines cook hot and fast over direct heat. Let's take the fabled Dreamland BBQ in Tuscaloosa, AL, where they cook over an open hickory pit at 600°F and a rack of spareribs is done in less than an hour. Feel free to argue about the quality but you tell the Crimson Tide legions that they are not eating authentic barbecue! Not me. Nosiree.

 

[krex1010]

Interesting topic, I've read articles on barbecue history in the US and around the world, and I've decided that when it comes to the question of "what is barbecue?" My answer is....I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

 

[Fwismoker]

Hwga.

I disagree, this is about the history and various definitions of BBQ...Not just temps.

There's a whole big world of different BBQ out there Bob you should check it out sometime. :caked:

 

[Fwismoker]

Interesting topic, I've read articles on barbecue history in the US and around the world, and I've decided that when it comes to the question of "what is barbecue?" My answer is....I can't define it but I know it when I see it.

Haha I feel ya. Gotta say I can't disagree with this.

Simply put: Smoke cooking.

 

[WareZdaBeef]

Well damn. This whole time my entire family and friends have been telling me my BBQ is the best they ever had. And now it turns out its not BBQ.

 

[Bludawg]

Everybody knows BBQ comes out off a bottle of the supermarket shelf. There are many types there's Kraft, KC Masterpiece, Sweetbaby Rays, Cattelmans and many more varieties.

 

[smoke ninja]

 

[Fwismoker]

I had some Southern BBQ tonight. OMG sooo good.

 

[WareZdaBeef]

I had some Southern BBQ tonight. OMG sooo good.

I am going to crush that up and make a rub with it. Then im going to coat a brisket with it and steam it. Thats some real southern BBQ.

 

[LYU370]

But is it enhanced???

 

[Fwismoker]

I am going to crush that up and make a rub with it. Then im going to coat a brisket with it and steam it. Thats some real southern BBQ.

Ok ...but as long as you steam it!

 

[Grillard]

Everybody knows BBQ comes out off a bottle of the supermarket shelf. There are many types there's Kraft, KC Masterpiece, Sweetbaby Rays, Cattelmans and many more varieties.

Just as long as you cook it low and slow in a crockpot.

 

[highergr0und]

I will admit that until I moved to the south, I literally had no idea what low and slow was or that things could take 12 hours to cook on a grill. My experience with bbq was pretty much ribs at Chilis or riblets at applebees. I don't think I even tasted brisket until college and it was still at a crappy chain place. Only thing we did on grills in my family were burgers, drumsticks, and the very occasional steak.

I moved to Mississippi at 26 and had quite the awakening, especially since I had moved from living in downtown Chicago. My first few days there I had Chick Fil A, red beans and rice, meat and 3s, and real BBQ for the first time.... Opened up my eyes and my waistline!! About a month after moving I hit Dreamland for the first time on a road trip and was hooked.

It truly had never really dawned on me that you would purposely cook something slower than necessary to make it better. Now I realize the error of my ways.....

 

[cats49er]

I say: Cut out the snobbery and get your facts straight! Barbecue around the world is far too complex and wonderful to be oversimplified like that. It was not invented in the US, and it is not exclusive to the US. Barbecue is a big word that encompasses grilling and many cooking methods as shown in the illustration above. What you are describing is more properly called "Southern Barbecue" or Low & Slow Smoke Roasting".
I think you nailed it lady.

 

[PekingPorker]

Wait, are we talking barbecue or barbeque?

 

[Fwismoker]

Wait, are we talking barbecue or barbeque?

Oh don't forget BBQ and barbacoa!

 

[bbqlearner]

I'm not from the US but have lived here in US a long time. And I have traveled to many other countries and never heard barbeque being used other than what it's supposed to mean in the US.

In other countries, we called it grilling just like you would call chicken being grilled "grilled chicken" not "BBQ chicken." Otherwise, all the fast food restaurants would have the name "BBQ chicken salad" in all of their menus. Just saying....